The price of gasoline across much of British Columbia could see further declines in the coming weeks as crude oil prices drop and refineries come back online.
On Thursday morning, the average price of gasoline in Metro Vancouver was at 182.7, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. That’s down 22.7 cents from a week earlier.
“I’d expect a decline of another five to 15 cents per litre in the next week,” said De Haan. “But I’m more optimistic it could be larger... it could be down closer to 10 to 20 cents per litre in the next week.”
That would put the average price of gasoline in Metro Vancouver just over $1.60 per litre, levels not seen since January 2022, before Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine and tightened the supply of fuel across the world.
“We’re talking about going from one side of the pendulum to the other,” De Haan said. “It’s been a volatile year.”
Prices had climbed to an average of 224.3 cents per litre in June. As global fuel prices came down, the price of gasoline in Metro Vancouver dipped in late summer.
But it's not just global trade that affects the cost of gasoline. In October, prices shot up again when a confluence of scheduled and unplanned maintenance at fuel refineries in Edmonton, Washington state and California restricted supply across much of North America’s West Coast.
“Things were immensely tight,” said De Haan.
In the coming weeks, Metro Vancouver is expected to see some of the greatest price drops in Western Canada — largely because prices had increased so much in the metro region. But De Haan said he expects similar though not quite as drastic declines elsewhere in the province, such as Victoria or Kelowna.
Gas stations will inevitably take their time to pass on all the fuel price drops, but there are signs the downward price trend could continue, said the analyst.
“I’d expect notable decreases across much of Western Canada,” he added. “There is a possibility we could see it extend into a second week.”
